by Laura Tanna
When a love story gives rise to enduring beauty, the world takes notice. Martine and Prosper Assouline choose to call their creations “the most sophisticated books in the world,” although they might just as well add “and the most beautiful”. Prosper reveals that he was inspired by his paternal grandfather’s Haggadah in Morocco, a Jewish holy book, covered with elaborate typography. He realized then that “the cover could be as important as the content: that beautiful presentation is a mark of respect for the subject.” Perhaps this is why so many fascinating people have selected, or been selected by, Assouline Publishers to present their lives, their work or their heritage to the world.
Connoisseurs of Assouline will already know the background to their first publication, La Colombe D’Or, celebrating their favourite hotel in St. Paul de Vence in the south of France where their love bloomed. Martine Buchet wrote the text while Prosper Assouline took photographs to capture in one volume the charm and history of Paul Roux’s country inn which became an enclave for artists, writers, actors – Dufy, Matisse, Braque, Calder, Prévert, Montand, Signoret – often before their fame made the place a pilgrimage for visitors from throughout the globe. Married in 1991, the initial collaboration was so successful the couple never stopped working together, producing Alexandre, their son, then their other “offspring”.
From an office opened in 1995 in Place St. Germain in Paris, Assouline is now France’s largest independent publisher, with some 50 employees and over 1,400 titles published since that first volume appeared in the Autumn of 1994. Is it any wonder that Proper Assouline was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 2010 by the French Ministry of Culture, but presented with it at a ceremony at Sotheby’s in New York City in 2011? Yes, the Assoulines expanded their quest for presenting a brand of luxury and culture across the Atlantic, opening an office in New York in 1999 and their first boutique inside the prestigious Bergdorf Goodman Department Store on Fifth Avenue in 2003, reaching out to people who wouldn’t necessarily go to a bookstore for a gift but who would discover the delight of sharing an exquisitely prepared volume, perhaps from their Mémoire Collection with over eight million books sold, translated into seven languages, including initial offerings on everything from fashion icons Chanel and Dior to Brazil’s famous architect Oscar Niemeyer.
Their Lifetime Collection came next with scores of books on celebrities and their haunts: Princess Grace of Monaco, The French Riviera, Lee Radziwill’s Happy Times recently the enticing In The Spirit of Harlem and more. I entered the world of Assouline when my editor sent me a copy of Beyond Extravagance A Royal Collection of Gems and Jewels, (see “Living Beyond Extravagance in India,” Jamaque Paradis, Fall/Autumn 2015). The boxed edition, filled with knowledge about India’s past, conveyed amongst spectacularly well-photographed gems, jewels and historic photographs on large glossy pages – with captions given on pages before or after so as not to mar the perfection of the items – introduced me to the elegance of their books. The lavishly illustrated Portraits of Ottoman Sultans, a narrative on the 36 Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, is another in the superb boxed Beyond Collection, as is Paris in the 1920s.
The Highlife Collection takes one behind the scenes with titles such as Private: Giancarlo Giammetti describing his collaboration personally and professionally with Valentino, sharing some of his thousands of photographs taken over his life. Cecil Beaton: The Art of the Scrapbook introduces you to the world of this renowned photographer whose career placed him among some of the most powerful and famous people of the last century. The Ultimate Collection, carefully handmade editions for the ultimate collector, includes one of Martine Assouline’s favourite works: Ballets Russes. A number of their publications appear in both English or French. There is also The Impossible Collection of Cars, a favourite of Proper’s and Special Editions, as well as Limited Editions of just 100 copies, and Assouline Private, which are books made to order.
Martine explains her fascinating background which developed her familiarity with world culture and her ability to share this with others as she shapes the editorial concepts of their publications. She reveals:
“My mother was raised in a part of Africa where her parents lived (her grandmother had her lion following her everywhere). When she was a young woman, she went to France and married my father just after World War II. My father had just lost his father when he had been sent to a concentration camp by the Gestapo because he directed and owned an important newspaper. So, my father wanted to leave France and my mother decided to go back to Africa. They went to Ivory Coast first, then Nigeria where I went to my first school, but decided to go back to France when I was five years old. Some years later, Henri Roussel, my father’s friend and owner of pharmaceutical big company needed somebody to drive his Latin America’s business, and my parents decided to accept his offer. So I went to school in Buenos Aires (with my Argentinean cousins) and then we went to Lima. When you are a kid and you have to change homes so often, it becomes normal. You just learn to adapt quicker, and you get linked to other cultures naturally.
“My golden age was certainly my teenage period in Lima with all my Peruvian friends, mostly surfers and happy people. After finishing high school, my father sent me to Switzerland and France to universities and it was a bit difficult to get into more serious ‘shoes’!”
But get serious she did, earning a degree in Law from the University in Nice, France, honing her ability to work with individual editors on books to ensure that substance is succinctly and eloquently presented. She remembers:
“I am a book lover, a big reader since I learned how to read, and even if I was more a “literary person,” my father directed me to study law because he thought I needed a strong career to be independent in my life. He used to say ‘law opens everything’ and he was right!”
She muses: “Life not only changes your destiny but also your way of being. When you welcome other cultures, you become more naturally open minded, and curious to others. My pride was my knowledge and my education, which is the only thing that you really carry with you when you arrive in a new community. I belonged to many different places, so no one in particular.
“When I married Prosper and we decided to start a publishing adventure, I started to educate my eye being always with him. So, today, my spectrum of experience is large, adding a good and quick eye to a sense of words. Studying law also sharpened my mind to be clearer and more rational, which is a good thing to add to your creative side when you have to find a direction to a book.”
Prosper on the other hand started as an intern at publishing giant Filipacci in France (think Elle, French Playboy and Paris Match) where his sister, a journalist, worked as did their brother. Prosper learned by doing, learning so much they published their first magazine when he was 18 and went on in the 1980s to establish an agency specializing in branding and advertising, bringing luxury and publishing together in a new way for major names (think Chanel, the Dorchester Group, Veuve Clicquot).
This is something he obviously still does very well with his wife Martine concentrating on the editorial side of things and Prosper looking after their expanding vision. He takes care of image and development, including “library furnishings,” the accoutrements that create the kind of room in which one enjoys their exquisite books. Fittingly, luxury group LVMH has become a minor investor in their family company. Assouline Publishers now has more than 20 corners within establishments and separate boutiques worldwide selling their products. Their first independent store opened in Paris in 2005, a New York boutique in the Plaza Hotel in 2010, as well as a boutique store in the prestigious South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. In addition, they have branded boutiques, owned by investors, in various cities such as Istanbul, Turkey, Mexico City, Lima, Peru, Santiago, Chile and Venice, Italy. But their greatest coup so far is undoubtedly Maison Assouline.
Maison Assouline, their first international flagship store, opened at 196A Piccadilly in London in the Autumn of 2014, their company’s 20th anniversary. I can attest to what a wonderful place Maison Assouline is because I visited it in both July 2015 and 2016 and had the opportunity to meet Aida Alice Bayoud, their Vice President for Marketing and Luxury Retail Consultant. The building, once a bank, was designed by the self-taught, working-class genius of an architect, Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens in 1922. Having lived in New Delhi I am well familiar with the work of this famous architect who designed the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in other words the powerful centre of New Delhi, as well as the Viceroy’s House. How appropriate that Prosper Assouline should have secured this building for Assouline!
It seems that in designing the interior of the building, Prosper realized that he was basically creating an environment that might as well be his home and so as you enter this store you find yourself as if in a marvelous book-lined library, floor to high ceiling with shelves of their fabulous book covers decorating the walls. Persian carpets underfoot, one can browse through the books, or sit at the Swan’s Bar to sip champagne and have a light lunch, perhaps as I did of fois gras brought in from L’Ami Louis (the last time I dined there in Paris who should walk in but Roman Polanski). The ambiance of Maison Assouline is sublime understated elegance, with the feel of a private club or what Aida describes as “a secret heaven within the city,” just the sort of place to enjoy after having visited the Royal Academy of Arts down the street, or perhaps to shop for one of Assouline’s gorgeous books as a gift for a friend. They have easily over 100 clients who regularly order Christmas gifts each year from their long list of publications.
Their Paris office is just around the corner from Place Vendome, described to perfection in the volume Place Vendome Paris. As with all their publications which educate one subliminally, although purporting to be about Place Vendome one receives a fascinating introduction into the history of Louis XIV’s reign, and the book costs only US$50, as opposed to some of their pricier publications which can run into thousands of dollars. The long awaited Venice Synagogues just appeared this year at $845 as has The Queen’s People, their exquisite salute to Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. They’ve now moved their main office to the 27th floor of Three Park Avenue in Manhattan so we look forward to perhaps one day having a Maison Assouline in New York!
Derwent Donaldson at Assouline Boutique in Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fl
Aida alice Bayoud V.P. Marketing & Luxury Retail Consultant